Health

UF HEALTH Discovers Possible Risk Factors for COVID-19

Recent studies have revealed another possible risk factor for COVID-19, vitamin D deficiency.

Researchers at the University of Florida found that patients with vitamin D deficiency may be more COVID-19-positive than patients who are taking sufficient amounts of important vitamins that can be obtained from sources such as sunlight and animal protein. I found that the sex was four times higher.The· Investigation result It was released on December 4th.

Joseph Katz, a professor of oral medicine at the University of Florida at the College of Dentistry, began his research because he wondered if vitamin D deficiency would affect the development of COVID-19. The study took about three months, and Katz worked with biostatisticians at the University of Florida, such as Sijia Yue, to analyze the data and adjust various variables, he said.

“The rationale behind our results is that in the case of vitamin D deficiency, the risk of getting COVID-19 is so high that we really need to be careful,” said a data analyst at the University of Florida. Yue said. Biostatistics said.

Yue assisted the study by allowing researchers to use patient data to run the model. They used the model to adjust the patient’s age, gender, and race. Even after considering such factors, Yue said the results still showed a strong association between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19.

Katz said a strong correlation between vitamin D and COVID-19 is a cause of concern, as the majority of the population (5%) is deficient in vitamin D and 17% of African Americans are deficient. I did.

The next step is to give the patient a vitamin D supplement. Next, Katz wants to study the effects of vitamin D on other aspects of health. Some of these effects are long-term, so researchers will follow patients for about five years to see how many patients are affected by different conditions, Katz said.

“I think this is the direction I’m looking for in the future,” he said. “This whole area of Vitamin D is very exciting in my field and in other fields.”

Elias Sarkis, a Gainesville psychiatrist at Sarkis Clinical Trials, said vitamin D deficiency is not only COVID-19-positive, but may also correlate with COVID-19 death and other problems. ..

“People who are low in vitamin D have a higher rate of admission to the ICU,” says Sarkis. “They have a higher mortality rate in the ICU. And those who are low in vitamin D, autism, ADHD, depression, heart problems. But I don’t know why. “

But Sarkis said he wasn’t sure if vitamin D could prevent problems such as fatigue.

“We know that low vitamin D is associated with fatigue and malaise,” says Sarxis. “So it clearly plays a role in immunity, and that’s why it’s so deeply involved in everything we’re talking about.”

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UF HEALTH Discovers Possible Risk Factors for COVID-19

Health

UF HEALTH Discovers Possible Risk Factors for COVID-19

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